Eurovision (ESC) Thursday - ESC22 Then & Now - Part 2

I figured that I would do a comparison of what I thought about the songs when they were first released and what I think about the songs now since we are about 1.5 weeks away from the big day. Keep in mind for my “now”, I’m factoring in several things – preparty performances, general personality, and of course the song.

Since there are 40 countries competing in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, I’m breaking this topic down into two parts. Here’s the second half of the list in alphabetical order by country.

LATVIA – CITI ZENI – “EAT YOUR SALAD”

The guys from Citi Zeni pretty much have stayed the same for me throughout this crazy ESC2022 season.

LITHUANIA – MONIKA LIU – “SENTIMENTAI”

I gotta say that Monika is an entire vibe, and I’m such a huge fan of her song and her personality.

MALTA – EMMA MUSCAT – “OUT OF SIGHT” “I AM WHAT I AM”

Malta did a little switcheroo on us. They released one song but decided to change its entry later in the national selection season. While that’s not against the rules, it did rub some folks the wrong way. If it is part of the rules, I cannot fault Malta for taking advantage of this loophole. Although this song isn’t a huge improvement compared to the first one originally submitted, I do like this song a bit more than the first one.

MOLDOVA – ZDOB ȘI ZDUB & FRAȚII ADVAHOV – “TRENULEŢUL”

Looking back, I may have given Moldova too low of a score – that’s why this entry is Then and Now. While I’m not a huge fan of the revamp, this song still puts a smile on my face. Oh, I’m not too huge of a fan of the revamp because I think they made it too “rocky” at the expense of the folk sound.

MONTENEGRO – VLADANA – “BREATHE”

Throughout this season, Vladana has been delivering the fashions. Seeing what she was going to wear to the preparties was one of the reasons why I followed the preparties. Unfortunately, the vocal did not really match all of the fashions that she was delivering.

NETHERLANDS – S10 – “DE DIEPTE”

I will be honest that I pretty much skipped this song early in the season, but it really grew on me. For instance, as I type this, I’m singing “OOOOOHHHH oOOOHHHH AAAAH AAAHH something, something, something in Dutch” in my head. The unexpected is one of the things that I like about Eurovision. A song in a language besides English or Spanish that I would normally ignore has become one of my top songs for the year. In addition to a strong song, I have to give S10 so many props (or as the kids say her flowers) for overcoming so many obstacles just to get this to this point.

NORTH MACEDONIA – ANDREA – “CIRCLES”

Andrea’s song started off really strong for me, but it lost that spark over the season. Compared to other artists this year, I feel that she lacks a certain stage presence when performing this particular song. However, I am a bit conflicted because I LOVE the personality that she has displayed during interviews.

NORWAY – SUBWOOLFER – “GIVE THAT WOLF A BANANA”

The jump from three stars to five stars is primarily based on the group’s personality. For example, the group has made parodies (in a good, friendly way) of most of the other songs/videos for this year’s contest. Honestly, I look forward to seeing what randomness they are going to post on Instagram. They seem like the type of folks whom you want on your party’s or brunch’s guest list. While the group has not revealed their identities, I (as well as others in the fandom) think they are Ylvis. The duo that had that somewhat popular “Fox” song from a few years ago. A few reasons for this assumption:

• They are both from Norway and on the same record label

• The costumes imitating animals

• Dancers wearing ties

• Special choreography

• Since Subwoolfer is from the Moon (for ESC2022 at least), they do not speak and have a “translator” do their interviews. I think this is clearly a decoy to throw off folks who might recognize their speaking voices.

POLAND – KRYSTIAN OCHMAN – “RIVER”

This song pretty much has stayed in my top 5 through this Eurovision season.

PORTUGAL – MARO – “SAUDADE SAUDADE”

I really tried, but I just could not get into this song even after multiple listens. My one-star does not mean the song is bad; it just means (for whatever reason) the song just doesn’t resonate with me.

ROMANIA – WRS – “LLÁMAME”

Boy oh boy. This song is such an earworm. Like I’m actually singing Hola, mi be-bé-bé. {HEY} Hola, mi be-bé-bé. {HEY} Llámame, llámame. I dunno why, but this song always seems to put a smile or a smirk on my face. For me, the huge jump in stars is less about the song and more about the artist, Wrs. While he seems quite eccentric, he also seems to be quite down to earth with a super chill vibe. If Eurovision gave out a Mr. Congeniality award, Wrs would be my top candidate for ESC2022. Although Wrs is going to be in a tough semifinal round, I really hope that he qualifies to the grand final.

SAN MARINO – ACHILLE LAURO – “STRIPPER”

I might have unfairly judged this one. No, I take that back. I think that I judged it fairly based on Achille’s performance during San Marino’s national selection. However, over time the artist and the song really grew on me. Also, I kind of like the mystery behind Achille. With his too cool-for-school demeanor, I’m like does he even want to be in Eurovision. I guess that’s the mystery behind him. You know, do not give them too much so they will always want more. Oh, I do think he wants to participate in Eurovision because he would not have competed in two separate national selections for the contest. After placing in the bottom half of Italy’s Sanremo festival, he decided to compete in San Marino’s national selection.

SERBIA – KONSTRAKTA – “IN CORPORE SANO”

This has been one of my favorite songs and performers throughout ESC2022 season. No one had better say anything bad about Konstrakta.

SLOVENIA – LPS – “DISKO”

Last Pizza Slice (or LPS) gained a little power with me. While I am a fan of disco music, the song never resonated with me. However, there is one part of the song when the lead singer (I think his name is Philip) and the band really slows down the groove. I don’t know why but I absolutely love that part of the song. In fact, I mainly listen to the song because of that transition. Random LOL. Doesn’t the group look like bunch of high schoolers set up a band with their music teacher?

Photo courtesy of RTV SLOVENIA

SPAIN – CHANEL – “SLOMO”

What an amazing talent. While Chanel does not have the strongest vocals of the female performers in this year’s contest, her dancing and stage presence are undeniable. If she plays her cards right and has a good team, I’m sure that we will hear a lot from her in the future.

SWEDEN – CORNELIA JAKOBS – “HOLD ME CLOSER”

I have no words that reflect how much I enjoy listening to this song.

SWITZERLAND – MARIUS BEAR – “BOYS DO CRY”

Sorry Switzerland, but I just could not get into the singer or the song.

UKRAINE – KALUSH ORCHESTRA – “STEFANIA”

This is complicated because Ukraine originally was sending Alina Pash as its representative. However, she had to withdraw after it was discovered that she illegally traveled to Crimea, which is a no no for Ukrainian citizens. Since Kalush Orchestra came in second place for the national selection, they became the Ukrainian candidates for ESC2022. I’m sorry but the song does not really work for me. Actually, I take that back. The rapper does not really work for me. Since anything related to Ukraine is clearly a touchy subject, I’ll just leave my comments there.

THE UK – SAM RYDER – “SPACE MAN”

While Poland is my favorite to win, I think Sam is going to bring the Eurovision microphone trophy back to the UK after many, Many, MANY years. My only concern with his song during my original review was with hitting those high notes live. At the time of the review, I only commented on the music video. I gotta say that he delivered those high notes at every single preparty. Also, I have seen some clips of his rehearsals for Eurovision and the staging is probably one of the best stagings that I have seen in the few years of watching Eurovision. The BBC really invested quite a bit of pounds in this artist, and I think the UK will be extremely pleased with his results. I’m going to say this right now, but you know there is some geopolitical crap going on if Sam does not finish in the top 10 overall and in the top five for the national juries vote.

My Complete Rankings

Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) – Spain 🇪🇸

Preface:

I had not planned on watching any of the individual countries’ national selections. Since the hubby is from Spain (sorry, I mean España), I had the privilege of watching Benidorm Fest, which is Spain’s national selection for Eurovision. Boy was there some drama. I learned the term is actually “Eurodrama”. The issue was pretty much between three entries – Chanel’s SloMo (the winner), Tanxugueiras’ Terra, and Rigoberta Bandini’s Ay Mamá.

Chanel – SloMo

Vocal:

While I really like the song, it is quite clear that Chanel is more of a dancer than a singer, which is fine. I do not think she’s a bad singer, but there were other stronger vocalists in the national selection. There definitely is time for Chanel to improve her vocal range before May.

Musical Arrangement:

To be perfectly honest, I was not a huge fan of the song before watching the national selection. A few days prior to Benidorm Fest, the hubby played the Spotify playlist with the 16 candidates, and I found SloMo to be annoyingly repetitive and weak (relative to the other songs). Of course, that all changed when I saw her semifinal performance. I was pretty much like this song and performance is Eurovision-ready. Because of the live performance, I’m still repeating the chorus: “Check the video and watch in Slomo mo mo mo. Booty hypnotic, make you want more, mo mo mo. Voy a bajarlo hasta el suelo lo lo lo” Hey, I did not say the lyrics had significant meaning, but they are pretty catchy. 

Staging:

Constant movement is one thing that I really love with pop performances (especially when there is not a strong vocal), and Chanel did not fail in that aspect. Also, the lighting effects were pretty nice especially at 1:50 when the lighting gave a slow-motion effect. Of course, the dance breakdown at 2:09 was on point. I think the dance breakdown saved the performance. In the studio version, from 2:09 to 3:15 she basically repeated the chorus 80 million times, so the dance break added a bit more substance to the song.

Final Thoughts:

I’ll give this bad boy (errrr girl) 5 stars, but I do hope that she works on the vocals over the next few months. I would not mind hearing a strong, sustained note during a portion of the song because I feel like she relies on too much backing vocal. Then again, maybe that’s impossible because she does dance pretty much throughout the entire song.

The drama . . . I mean The Eurodrama:

Over the past few years, Spain has had some difficulties in Eurovision by typically landing in the bottom five. It’s somewhat embarrassing because Spain is one of the Big Five of Eurovision meaning that it contributes a large financial chunk for the song contest. Just for reference, the other Big Five countries include the UK, France, Italy, and Germany. This year, I think one of the issues for Spain is having a song/performance that will keep it out of the bottom five while “fully” representing the country.

For Spain’s national selection the winning scores were broken down like this: 50% national jury, 25 public vote, and 25% demographic vote. Chanel won the national jury vote, but did not win the public and demographic votes, so many folks in Spain are very disappointed. The hubby was a bit disappointed, but he’s fine with the selection. However, many folks have expressed their disappointment by going on social media and attacking Chanel to the point where she deactivated her Twitter account. This is annoying because she did not do anything but perform her song. I mean go off on the selection process and RTVE, the organization that selects Spain’s Eurovision candidates. While I thought the other two songs were more representative of Spain, I do not think that they would have kept Spain out of the bottom five. One song was very folkloric and performed in Galician (a Spanish dialect) and the other one, which was an anti-sexism anthem, was very hard to interpret from the performance (see image below).

Really, a boob as a globe?

One more thing because this is kind of long. This fake wokeness is getting on my nerves. It’s funny how the folks who wanted Rigaberta (the performer with the “boob globe”) to win with her anthem of female empowerment are some of the same people taking to social media to bully another woman. So it’s ok for a woman to grab and rub her breasts on stage (Rigaberta), but it’s bad for another to shake her “booty hypnotic” (Chanel)? I don’t have a problem with either, but could someone make it make sense? Why is it good for one, but not the other if that’s how both women want to express themselves? Perhaps, I’m missing something.

Speaking of the bottom five – España in last year’s Eurovision:

Blas Canto – Voy a Quedarme

Semi-final results: Since Spain is one of the Big Five, it goes straight to the finals and does not have to compete in the semifinal

Final results: 24th place out of 26 performances (6 total points – 6 jury and 0 public votes).

I was a bit surprised that he ended up in 24th place because the song was not THAT bad and he is a decent singer. To be honest, I thought that it was going to end up anywhere in the high teens (~15th – 18th place). For ESC21, many of the male ballad singers did not do very well, with the exception of Switzerland (he ended up in 3rd place). The other male ballad singers from Austria, Estonia, and North Macedonia (he was really off-key though, but I love the studio version) did not qualify.

What’s even more surprising is that Spain did not receive any national jury votes from its friends/neighboring countries. They received four points from Romania and two points from the UK. I was kind of shocked they did not receive any points from Portugal or France. In many cases, neighboring countries tend to give each other points. I mean Spain gave Portugal six points (5 national jury and 1 public votes) and France the maximum of 24 points (12 national jury and 12 public votes). To be fair, France had an amazing performance last year.

The hubby did mention that Blas sometimes comes off a bit fake – crying on cue and saying that he wrote this song for his grandmother who died from COVID, which does make sense because

• It’s a romantic song. “Voy a quedarme y prometo quererte más que ayer. Voy a besarte muy lento como la primera vez.” which translates into “I’m going to stay and promise to love you more than yesterday. I’m going to kiss you very slowly like the first time.” To me, this seems more like a song for a lost lover, NOT your grandmother.

• He wrote the song BEFORE his grandmother died. Maybe she was sick while he was writing it.